Freedom Without Limits?

“Let my people go” is only half the story.

That's exactly what happened when I was invited, in the role of rabbinic expert, to address a class of public high school seniors on "The Most Important Message of the Jewish Holiday of Passover."

Before I could say anything, the person in charge carried on effusively, telling the students how she was certain I would explain that Jews celebrate Passover as the biblical festival which glorifies freedom as the greatest of all human rights. It is this concept, she enthusiastically went on, that guides us today as we live in a country that permits no limitations on our personal freedoms. We are free to do as we please, she suggested – all thanks to a Jewish holiday.

Then she finally introduced me and gave me the opportunity to disabuse her and the audience of an all too common misconception.

Of course, on one level, Passover deals with freedom. It is a holiday that commemorates the end of Jewish slavery and suffering. It reminds us from year-to-year that God hears the cries of the downtrodden, sensitive to the pain of the abused who seek relief from their cruel masters. Human beings are meant to be free from oppression by the wicked, from mistreatment by the callous, from subjugation by the stronger.

We were slaves to Pharaoh in Egypt and that kind of restriction is something the Almighty cannot countenance. "Let my people go," were the words God put into the mouth of Moses as the first part of his plea for liberty for the children of Israel. But there was more to that petition which we conveniently forget. And it is the last part of the biblical call for justice that forces us to rethink the parameters of freedom and the way in which our contemporary society has distorted its message.

Free Country

It sounds great, at first blush, to say that everyone should be free to do whatever they like. The first time our children give voice to obscenities or speak to us disrespectfully with the argument that "it's a free country," we begin to recognize that freedom without limits is anarchy, and freedom without conscience is cruelty.

Free speech is curtailed when it presents a clear and present danger.

Societies quickly learn that no one can be totally free at the expense of other people's rights. Freedom of speech is a fundamental right of American democracy. Nonetheless the Supreme Court has ruled that a few other public interests – national security, justice or personal safety – override freedom of speech. Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes, speaking for the unanimous Supreme Court, stated, "The question in every case is whether the words used are used in such circumstances and are of such a nature as to create a clear and present danger that they will bring about the substantive evils that Congress has a right to prevent."

The notion that “it's a free country” is what caused a Rutgers University freshman to kill himself after two classmates used a hidden dorm room camera to splash his sex life across the Internet.

Tyler Clementi, a renowned high school violinist, left his wallet on the George Washington Bridge before plunging to his death in the Hudson River after a Twitter post revealed sensitive details about his private life.

“It's a free country,” so Megan Taylor Meier, an American teenager from Missouri, committed suicide by hanging three weeks before her 14th birthday; she was distraught after the e-mails she was receiving from a boy turned from love to hate. In fact they were a fraudulent prank orchestrated by a neighbor, the mother of one Megan's friends with whom she had had a falling out.

The Law of Sinai

Freedoms misused may have tragic consequences. That is why Passover, known as the festival of freedom, is actually only half a holiday. From the very moment we celebrate liberation we count the days to the holiday of Shavuot, when the Jewish people stood at Mount Sinai and received the Torah. The two festivals are inextricably linked. The first speaks of freedom from; the second freedom to. We were freed from physical servitude in order to voluntarily place ourselves under the restrictions of moral rectitude.

Freedom without any restraints may very well be just as destructive as slavery. "No one can ever tell me what to do" – an idea not limited by ethical constraints – is potentially just as much a threat to the social order as slave masters.

Freedom without restraints may be as destructive as slavery.

The Midrash has a fascinating commentary on the location of the first meeting between God and Moses. It was at the burning bush that Moses was delegated to deliver the Jews from the slavery of Egypt. The bush in Hebrew was called sneh. That, say the commentators, is why that very spot would eventually be called Sinai. The place where the mission began defined its purpose. The goal was not simply to get the Jews out of Egypt, but rather to bring them to the mountain where they would receive the law. Freedom without law is inconceivable.

That is why Moses subsequently told Pharaoh not only to "let my people go," but added the all-important phrase "so that they may serve Me." This is the freedom of Passover, wedded to the moral covenant of the Torah.

From a Jewish perspective, to speak only of the ideal of freedom – while ignoring its necessary partner of responsibility – is to pervert its true meaning.

This is what Abraham Lincoln understood so well in his famous words, "Freedom is not the right to do what we want, but what we ought."

And this is the real message of Passover: God granted us the gift of physical freedom, so that we might become truly free to be guided by our spiritual selves.

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About the Author

Rabbi Benjamin Blech, a frequent contributor to Aish, is a Professor of Talmud at Yeshiva University and an internationally recognized educator, religious leader, and lecturer. Author of 14 highly acclaimed books with combined sales of over a half million copies, his newest, The World From A Spiritual Perspective, is a collection of over 100 of his best Aish articles. See his website at www.benjaminblech.com.

Visitor Comments: 9

(8)
Rachel,
April 13, 2011 11:31 PM

Driving others to suicide

With respect, I don't think the victimizers of the fragile young people who committed suicide invoked their 1st Amendment rights. In both cases, there have been consequences including criminal investigations and the possibility of lawsuits.
It's also difficult in a public school setting to invoke anything other than "freedom" because other principles might be perceived as too religious. I like your suggestion in a public school forum that the other part of the story is justice (a human right) rather than a more narrow religious reading such as the duty to serve Hashem.

(7)
Ruth Housman,
April 13, 2011 2:26 PM

The significance of the Exodus

We have to realize, on some level, that it is G_d, moving through all stories, and that to have our story, of The Exodus, there had to be an enslavement, and the story of what happened in Egypt. Whenever I see red thread, anywhere, I think of Miriam's "red thread", and I see, total metaphoric connects that do run up and down all of our lives, meaning Everyone, meaning, we are all in this, together.
So YES, the story of Exodus is everyman's story, of freedom from all kinds of enslavement, and that is also within the psyche, the soul, meaning emotional slavery, that which is done to each other, in cruel ways.
You are so right about freedom and the codicils that are deeply embedded within. If we feel we have freedom to enslave others, in cruelty, by acting in unjust ways, then we have not learned the message of Passover, of The Exodus, of Let My People Go. And if we do not feel, for the babies that were killed by the Angel of Death, this too. I am saying suffering is meant to be felt, even for those so afflicted, who afflicted us. Why? Because we are meant to learn lessons in life from all these Biblical stories. A morality. Surely the passage of the soul up Jacob's Ladder.
I see a parchment in matza itself, and I do deeply perceive burnt letters. I see that burning, as in The Bush that was not consumed, as in Moses and his encounter with G_d at "Sinai", well I see, something about passion, about ashes, about fire itself in all its dimensions as deeply informing our lives. It isn't just, as one rabbi said to me in a class, a "Dramatic" statement that only G_d could make. It has deepening significance as we peel and "peal" away at the layers. "There is a crack in everything. That's how the light gets in" (Leonard Cohen) and these bells shall Ring.

(6)
Gabi,
April 13, 2011 7:47 AM

Suicide is not the example I would have chosen to evoke "freedom without restraints." Individuals who choose that path often are all too aware of the restraints in their lives. They often have spent much time and energy attempting to accept and address those. In particular, having loved ones prevents them from easily choosing suicide. I do not mean to criticize the overarching meaning of your piece, but I would encourage you at this time of frequent tragedy in the news involving teenagers to have compassion for depressed adolescents and their families. If you summarize such a provocative and complex issue in a paragraph, let it be one that asks for healing, not one that appears to accuse victims of psychological illness of lacking self-control.

Michael,
April 17, 2011 6:59 PM

Rabbi Blech was criticizing the cruelty of other

Gabi you have misunderstood Rabbi Blech's intent. He is criticizing the cruelty of others which resulted in these tragic suicides.

(5)
Anonymous,
April 12, 2011 10:52 PM

The last line said it all. Will mention it at our seder

(4)
Richard,
April 12, 2011 5:01 PM

Great reminder & insight

Thank you Rabbi for your explanation and insight.

(3)
Anonymous,
April 11, 2011 1:35 AM

I believe that too. Freedom plus Responsibility to serve...

How can we teach this concept in public school today, when there is such an emphasis on separation of church and state. We as a nation are being harmed by this, in my opinion.

(2)
Anonymous,
April 10, 2011 6:15 PM

Freedom and Morality

For us to know our own heart,we can't have road blocks in front of freedom. Most of us learn more from our mistakes than our success. In this dualistic world,we can't know up without down,in without out,success without failure,good without bad. One can't excist without the other and enforcement of law,although necessary,limits understanding of our own heart.

(1)
luis,
April 10, 2011 1:40 PM

thanks for the post

thanks for this post. i visited Jerusalem last december and i was greatly and very positively impressed by Jewish spirituality. i'll continue to read you. God bless you.
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